by our College Data Analytics Team
In its yearly rankings, College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities to determine which ones are the best in a variety of categories, such as overall value, quality, diversity, which schools are the best for each major, and much more.
Appalachian State University was awarded 86 badges in the 2025 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is education.
Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.
According to College Factual's 2025 analysis, Appalachian State is ranked #401 out of 2,152 schools in the nation that were analyzed for overall quality. This puts it in the top 20% of all schools in the nation. This is an improvement over the previous year, when Appalachian State held the #445 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.
Out of the 93 colleges in North Carolina, Appalachian State is ranked at #11.
The acceptance rate at Appalachian State University is 83%. That's higher than the rate at many schools, but still low enough to be considered somewhat selective. If you want to get in, you'll need good grades and to be able to show that Appalachian State is a good fit for you.
About 12% of students accepted to Appalachian State submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 560 and 650. Math scores were between 540 and 620.
With a student to faculty ratio of 16 to 1, Appalachian State University is about average in this regard as the nationwide rate is 15 to 1. While this does not translate directly to class size, it's a good indicator of how much time professors will have to spend with their students on a one-on-one basis.
When estimating how much access students will have to their teachers, some people like to look at what percentage of faculty members are full time. This is because part-time teachers may not have as much time to spend on campus as their full-time counterparts.
The full-time faculty percentage at Appalachian State University is 77%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.
Appalachian State University has a freshmen retention rate of 83%. That's a good sign that full-time students like the school and their professors enough to want to stick around for another year. It's also a sign that the admissions team did a good job in choosing applicants who were a good fit for the school.
The on-time graduation rate for someone pursuing a bachelor's degree is typically four years. This rate at Appalachian State for first-time, full-time students is 54%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Appalachian State University.
During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 18,061 undergraduates at Appalachian State with 16,905 being full-time and 1,156 being part-time.
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $7,715 | $10,023 | $14,949 | $19,120 | $20,133 |
The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.Note that the net price is typically less than the published for a school. For more information on the sticker price of Appalachian State, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.
While almost two-thirds of students nationwide take out loans to pay for college, the percentage may be quite different for the school you plan on attending. At Appalachian State, approximately 42% of students took out student loans averaging $7,207 a year. That adds up to $28,828 over four years for those students.
The student loan default rate at Appalachian State is 1.0%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.
Get more details about paying for Appalachian State University.
See which majors at Appalachian State University make the most money.
Get more details about the location of Appalachian State University.
Contact details for Appalachian State are given below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 287 Rivers St, Boone, NC 28608 |
| Phone: | 828-262-2000 |
| Website: | https://www.appstate.edu/ |
| Most Popular Majors | Bachelor’s Degrees | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| General Psychology | 315 | $27,484 |
| Business Administration & Management | 309 | $44,126 |
| Health & Physical Education | 298 | $24,829 |
| Teacher Education Grade Specific | 261 | $41,144 |
| Teacher Education Subject Specific | 196 | $41,018 |
| Marketing | 190 | $42,999 |
| Educational Administration | 170 | NA |
| General Biology | 169 | $29,946 |
| Social Work | 163 | $32,725 |
| Public Relations & Advertising | 158 | $36,559 |
Online courses area a great option for busy, working students as well as for those who have scheduling conflicts and want to study on their own time. As time goes by, expect to see more and more online learning options become available.
In 2022-2023, 11,417 students took at least one online class at Appalachian State University. This is a decrease from the 12,306 students who took online classes the previous year.
| Year | Took at Least One Online Class | Took All Classes Online |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-2023 | 11,417 | 1,647 |
| 2021-2022 | 12,306 | 1,667 |
| 2020-2021 | 18,957 | 3,281 |
| 2018-2019 | 3,806 | 1,056 |
Learn more about online learning at Appalachian State University.
If you’re considering Appalachian State University, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.
Curious on how these schools stack up against Appalachian State? Pit them head to head with College Combat, our free interactive tool that lets you compare college on the features that matter most to you!
Footnotes
*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.